"The semi-abstract male face has now become an ongoing motif in my work. Rather than create a larger piece with a large single figure as a focal point, I decided to collect numerous faces across the board, and balance them to create a composition.
The inspiration for the figure came from the ‘Spaghetti Westerns’ I’d watch when I was young. Sergio Leone repeatedly used the extreme close-up on the faces of his cast to emphasise their different characters. Every one becomes a unique player in the film. Good looking, grizzled, battered, sun burnt, young, old… all up on the screen in microscopic detail.
The title ‘Close Ups’ is a reference to these films.
In artistic terms, I enjoy creating an abstract image then reeling it back in to resemble a face - how far can I take an abstraction and bring it back to create a face with genuine character."
- Simon Kirk